Reasons
by Jetainia
Summary: Harry looks back and says goodbye.


**Written for The Houses Competition**

 **House Hufflepuff**

 **Category: Themed (Goodbye)**

 **Prompt: Pensieve**

 **Word count: 1685**

 **Beta: Dark Angel of Sorrow Returns**

 **Note: AU, Ginny died during the Battle of Hogwarts.**

* * *

At complete odds to what it normally was, the Burrow was silent and still. There was no joyful laughter as siblings interacted with one another, no loving scolding from the matriarch as her children stole bits of food she was preparing, no excitable wizard in the shed nearby exclaiming over yet another ingenious invention of the muggles. The house was in mourning, two of its members were now gone, and two more had been injured irrevocably.

Two honorary Weasleys stayed in the house with the rest of the family and tried their best to help but they were also suffering from loss. Although the war was now over, and the world was at peace, it was not a peace this family knew what to do with. One half a joking pair was gone; a single joker was often buried by the other cards in the deck and seldom seen—such was the fate of the joker George Weasley.

A princess is looked after her entire life and sheltered from the world outside until she bravely breaks away from her protectors and experiences the dangers for herself. A tale that generally ends in the princess returning home safe, with a beau standing next to her after he had protected her during her adventures. Such happiness was not to be found in this tale, there was no returning princess and the beau sunk deep into depression after finding out he had failed in his duty.

He still remembered her, thought fondly of her fiery nature and even more fiery red hair that flowed behind her as she ran towards him, smiling. He had tried to protect her; ever since she had arrived at the school of learning and held under a dark spell, he had kept an eye on her. It was for his friend at first—the brother of this fair princess—but eventually he realised that he felt more than friendship for the female Weasley protected by her many brothers and himself.

The memories flowed through his mind, too fast for him to catch them all. He saw her smile—he always thought she had the most beautiful smile—he saw her red hair and heard her laugh. He wanted to see more, to be able to watch these scenes of memory replay before him so that he could pretend—just for a moment—that she was still there with him. He poured his memories into the solid basin in front of him and plunged in, ready to see his love as she once was.

* * *

 _Harry quietly sat down next to Ginny Weasley the day after he had ventured into the Chamber of Secrets and fought the memory of Tom Riddle. She looked over at him and then back down to where she was fiddling with her nails. Harry said nothing, just sat there and looked out over the grounds of Hogwarts._

" _I'm sorry," Ginny said eventually._

 _Harry looked at her in surprise, "Sorry?"_

" _For being so stupid and trusting a diary that was talking back to me, even after Dad drilled into me that I shouldn't trust anything if I couldn't see where it kept its brain."_

" _You don't need to be sorry, Ginny. Riddle was hypnotic, it would have been very hard to break his hold, even for an accomplished witch or wizard. It's only your first year at Hogwarts and the school is supposed to be safe, how could you know that you held a dark object?"_

 _Ginny sighed and stopped picking at her nails, "I suppose."_

" _Well, you may suppose but I know," he grinned at her and she grinned back hesitantly. "Come on, we should go stop Ron from trying to eat all the food on the Gryffindor table."_

 _Ginny giggled and let him pull her up and they walked towards the Great Hall together. She wasn't healed but she was on her way to putting the possession behind her._

* * *

 _Fifth year was hard for him, what with the Ministry declaring he and Dumbledore insane, the nightmares about Voldemort and his snake, Umbridge coming to school and giving him detentions almost every night and being banned from playing Quidditch. He even had to teach others Defence Against the Dark Arts due to Umbridge not teaching them any spells and only allowing them to read theory._

 _The secret lessons of Dumbledore's Army were probably the best bit about his fifth year, well, until Fred and George decided to go out with a bang and escape Hogwarts while throwing fireworks left, right and centre. That was amazing. The day after that however, he noticed how withdrawn Ginny had become without the distraction of her prankster elder brothers._

" _Want to talk about it?" he asked her when they both ended up being in the Gryffindor Common Room late one night while everyone else was asleep. Ginny didn't reply, instead continuing to stare into the fire crackling merrily. Harry nodded to himself and gently took a hold of the closest of Ginny's hands, "I'm here, if you need me."_

" _You wouldn't understand," she whispered._

" _Possibly, but at least you'd be able to tell someone. And, who knows, maybe I'll understand more than you think. You're not alone, Ginny."_

" _It feels like it, Fred and George have gone and everyone else is busy with their own problems or trying to finish school work. I don't want to bother anyone, but I just feel so cut off from everyone and it's like I'm back in first year with Tom whispering in my head!"_

 _Harry pulled her into a full hug, "Hey, it's okay. You're not alone, bother me all you like, and I'll help you as much as I can."_

" _Thanks, Harry."_

" _No problem."_

* * *

 _He didn't realise at first what the monster in his chest was so aggravated about. Then he found himself comforting Ginny after she had had a bad fight with Dean Thomas and realised the flowery scent he had smelled from the amortentia potion in Slughorn's class was Ginny's perfume. His chest monster rumbled contentedly as he held Ginny in his arms, letting her know that he was and always would be there for her._

 _That was when he figured out he_ liked _Ginny, more than as a sister. He wanted to be where Dean was, and he was sure that he would better at not fighting than he was. Dean didn't know how much Ginny was worth and Harry wished that he had enough courage to tell Ginny how he felt about her. But she was dating Dean and was also Ron's little sister. Harry wasn't sure how Ron would feel about his best mate dating his sister._

 _There wasn't enough courage in the world at that moment for Harry to tell Ginny how he felt about her. That would remain his secret until she was ready to accept him, and he thought Ron wouldn't try to kill him. Hopefully, that would be soon._

* * *

" _I'm going." The statement was firm, but Harry was determined not to let Ginny out of the Room of Requirement. She was safe here and there were Death Eaters all over Hogwarts right now. He wanted her to stay with the young students and keep them calm whilst also staying safe._

 _Ron was also adamant that Ginny stay behind and would not hear any of her reasons that she should go, not that Harry was any better at acknowledging those reasons. All he cared about were the reasons that Ginny_ shouldn't _go. He had sworn that he would protect her, and he would do that. It was a battle of reasons that were all genuine reasons on both sides. Eventually, Harry had to go out into the castle and he hoped Ginny would stay behind._

* * *

Harry gasped as he came out of the pensieve, Ginny's determined face still at the forefront of his mind. She hadn't deserved the ending Bellatrix Lestrange had delivered to her, if she had just listened to him and stayed in the Room of Requirement, she would probably still be around. Molly was distraught, her only daughter had been killed in front of her eyes and she had been too late to save her—though she had managed to bring down Bellatrix afterwards.

Life was not kind and it had taken so much away from him. His parents had been taken when he was barely one; Sirius when he was fifteen and only just getting to know his godfather; Remus, Tonks, Ginny, Fred and so many others had fallen during the Battle of Hogwarts. The losses had taken their toll on him and he did not often find joy. But he knew Ginny would want him to stay with her family and his surrogate family, he wasn't completely alone after all.

It was funny; he had once been the one who had helped Ginny see that she wasn't alone. Now it was the other way around, Ginny's memory was telling him that it was okay, he wasn't alone and that he needed to stay. She wouldn't listen to any reasons he tried to give for him leaving the Burrow and he found he couldn't ignore the reasons she gave him to stay at the Weasley home. So he would stay, until such a time where they all figured out how to live in this world without those that had left.

Smiling softly, Harry stroked the cool stone of the pensieve in front of him. He would always be able to see Ginny in his memories, but it was time to say goodbye to her and try to move on. Living in the past never helped anyone, this was the last time he would use the pensieve to see her, he would always remember her, but he didn't need to see her so clearly again. He could see her in her brothers, in her mother and father; she wasn't gone, not completely.

"Goodbye, Ginny." Harry carefully put away the pensieve and went downstairs, turning slightly when he thought he heard something but then dismissed it as his imagination.

" _Goodbye, Harry_."


End file.
